PHOTOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY

Copyright 1995 by Andrew J. Morris, All Rights Reserved

Most serious family genealogists include a collection of vintage
photographs of their family as part of their genealogical
collection. These are treasured heirlooms that we cherish and
protect, with the intent of passing them on to future generations,
that they might see, and feel as we do, the reality of their
heritage. But many of these unique and irreplaceable images will
not survive into the future, for lack of proper preservation. Nor
do all genealogists make as full use of photos as they could, to
document and illustrate their family history. This short guide will
offer a brief glimpse into the nature of photographs, and their use
in genealogical settings. We also have a brief History of Photography for those who want
to learn more about the nature and evolution of old photos.

Photos as Artifacts

Photographs have a dual identity, first as objects or artifacts,
and secondly as images. For antique photographs, the material
object is a unique and irreplaceable item that needs careful
handling and preservation to ensure its future existence. The image
it contains, on the other hand, may be reproduced indefinitely,
with no loss or diminution of the original. The best way to
preserve the object is to hide it away in some dark, climate
controlled space, since light, humidity and atmospheric pollutants
are some of the greatest dangers to its survival. Images, by
contrast, are best preserved by their widespread distribution, as
the more copies there are the less likely they will all fall prey
to the kinds of accidents that destroy pictures.

For genealogists wishing to preserve a family photo collection,
then, the best thing to do is first copy as many of the images as
possible, distribute those copies as widely as possible, then store
the originals safely away. If you want your collection to last far
into the future, never put those photos on display! Instead, have
faithful copies made, and display the copies.

The first threat to old photographs is light. The miracle of
photography is based on the reaction of certain chemicals, such as
silver chloride, to light. When a focused image falls on the film
in a camera, the light causes the bright parts of the image to
react chemically, which after further chemical treatment results in
dark areas on the film, hence a negative image. To make a
photographic print, light is again used: more light gets through the
lightest areas of the negative, causing the most chemical reaction in
the print, and thus the darkest areas of the image.

The negative or print undergoes further chemical treatment to halt
the reaction to light, so that the image is 'permanently' fixed.
The compounds that make up the image are subject to various
chemical changes over time, that may lighten the image, or cause
blotching or changes in color or texture. In severe cases, the
image may be lost entirely. As with many chemical reactions, the
process will speed up when the chemicals are exposed to energy in
the form of heat or light. These compounds will also react with
other chemicals they come in contact with, such as air pollutants
or water in the form of humidity. The substrate the image rests on,
often paper, also undergoes chemical change over time, and may even
disintegrate under adverse conditions.

If you have unlimited funds, the best storage method is to place
each photo in an acid-free envelope made for archival storage. Then
place the envelopes in a sturdy archival box, either of acid free
cardboard or enameled metal. Store the boxed photos in a room that
is safe from fire or flood, with a relative humidity of from 40% to
50%, and cool temperature, with little fluctuation in those values.

As a practical matter, we are rarely able to create the perfect
climate controlled environment that would best preserve our photos.
But there are some simple and effective steps we can take to
prolong the life of these cherished objects. Modern plastic, for
all its faults, has some properties that help us protect our
photographs. Food storage bags made of polyurethane, particularly
those that form an air-tight seal, will protect pictures from
outside contaminants. Humidity should be neither extremely high nor
low, since each condition can have adverse effects. If it is
possible to store your photos in an environment with about 40% or
50% relative humidity, that is ideal. Remember that before you seal
them in plastic bags! If you live in a humid environment, look for
a room where air-conditioning or heating has caused the humidity to
drop. Or if you live in an arid area, try using a humidifier to
bring the humidity up to that 50% mark. Let your photos adjust to
that moderate humidity for a few days, then seal them in the
baggies.

Use a separate bag for each photo if possible--the photos
themselves give off chemicals that can be harmful, particularly if
they have not been properly treated to begin with. The one drawback
to the plastic bag approach is that these chemicals will get
trapped in with the photo, but if each photo is in a separate bag,
at least a particularly polluted one will not affect the others.

Place the bagged photos in sturdy boxes to prevent physical damage,
and store them in as cool an environment as you have available. The
temperature should be as constant as possible, as the contraction
and expansion of fluctuating temperatures may cause pictures to
crack or peal, since the substrate will not expand at the same rate
as the chemical layer containing the image.

Photos as Records

Your collection of photos provide you with information about the
past that is available from no other source. Each snapshot is a
frozen moment, a tiny slice of life captured on film. Each formal
portrait captures a tiny bit of the subjects soul, just as the pre-
civilized tribesman believed.

When it comes to genealogy, the formal portraits may be great to
illustrate a family history, but it is the casual snapshot that
gives us the most information. It's a pity for us that Kodak's
invention didn't come earlier. And the most surprising fact is, it
is often not the subject of the photograph that is of interest in
those informal snapshots, but the background!

Look closely at your pictures. That somewhat fuzzy picture of a
jumping dog may have a chicken-coop in the background ... (I didn't
know grandpa raised chickens ...) Is that a beer uncle Billy is
drinking in the prohibition-era photo of a Christmas party? And
what presents are there under the tree? Pictures, particularly the
informal ones, tell a lot about the family's lifestyle. Sometimes
they provide us with facts, but more often they provide ambiance,
the feelings of the time and place.

Very few of us are lucky enough to have snapshot-type photos from
before the turn of the century. Kodak brought photography to the
masses in the late 1880's, but it took time for the idea to catch
on. Some folks are lucky enough to have a photographer among their
ancestors; there were tens of thousands of amateur and professional
photographers in the USA alone in the latter half of the 1800's.
Not all of them took informal pictures around the old homestead,
but many did, and those images are priceless when we have them in
our family collections. They are very near worthless when they
appear without identification of any sort in the junk-dealer's
jumble box.

So it behooves us to identify and caption our collections, however
arduous that process may seem. Never write anything on the face of a
photograph! For paper or card mounted photos, if they are sturdy
enough that you can write on them without damaging the image, put
information on the back in pencil. The ink in pens, especially
modern ball-point pens, just add more chemicals to that mix of
volatiles from which we need to protect our photos. If it is not
possible to write safely directly on the back of the photo, or if
you have more information than will fit in the space available,
consider making a photocopy. Modern photocopy machines do a
credible job of reproducing photos, at least to the extent that you
can identify which photocopy comes from which photograph. Then you
have an entire page on which to write your description. The photo
is exposed to bright light for a moment when making photocopies,
but the benefit of having a properly identified photo far outweigh
the minuscule amount of detriment it may cause.

Consider using photographs to document and illustrate the
information you discover in your genealogical research. When you
find the places your ancestors lived, try to get photographs of
those places. Be creative. If you can not go and take pictures
yourself, let your friends and relatives know that you are
interested in the area, and perhaps they will take some photos when
in that area. Or contact someone who lives in the area, through the
local chamber of commerce, library, or via Internet. They may be
willing to take some pictures at a reasonable fee, or know someone
else who will do so.

As mentioned earlier, photographic images have the wonderful
property of being capable of being propagated, without any
deleterious effect on the original. Remind your relatives of this
fact! Get copies of any old photos, (and a good selection of modern
ones), that they may have. They don't have to give up the
originals, you can copy the images quite easily. Have a professional
make copies for the best results, or learn to take copy photos
yourself, using a good camera with a close-up lens.

The Evocative Image

If those family photos evoke responses in those of us who were born
long after they were taken, imagine how much more powerful they can
be to those who lived them. Nothing is more likely to jog an
elderly relative's memory than a photo from his or her past.

Keep a good collection of copies of your best old photos, for use
as memory-joggers and gifts to relatives who help you further your
research. Discuss the subjects of the pictures, in person if
possible or by phone if necessary. If you can, record your
conversations--oral history adds yet another dimension to your
documentation. Much of what we have said regarding photos might
also apply to sound recordings--make duplicates to help ensure
their preservation!

Digital Imaging

It is a simple rule that whenever a picture is duplicated, the copy
can never be as good as the original. 'Good' here means that the
information, the shades of light and dark, can never be perfectly
replicated, there is always some loss of detail in the copy.
Sometimes the copy may look more pleasing to the eye, it often has
better contrast and may be printed better, but it will not have all
the information that is inherent in the original. The better the
copy, the less information is lost. Sometimes this loss is so
slight as to be insignificant. Since most prints are made from
negatives, it follows that the negative will have more detail--more
gradations of tone from the lightest to the darkest parts--than any
copy made from that negative. Thus, whenever possible, negatives
should be preserved and used to make prints, since the results will
be better than when a print is made from another print.

Modern technology presents us with a method of imaging that defies
this principal of loss with every copy. In digital imagery, the
picture is encoded as a series of numeric values, with each value
representing some aspect of a tiny spot in the picture. Since these
digital images are usually made by scanning--or 'digitizing'--a
printed image, they can never be as good as that printed image,
that is they can never have as much information in them. But once
digitized, the image is just a series of numbers, and those numbers
can be copied by others without any further loss of data. The
copies can be copied, and copies of that copy copied again, all
without loss, so long as the data is transmitted (copied) without
error. This is the future of images.

Digital images may also be transformed, manipulated, and combined
in various ways that make them a versatile and convenient format
for preserving images. Storage can be in various computer formats,
but the most stable and long-term form currently available is CD-
ROM. The stored image can be viewed on a computer terminal, or
printed out. If the CD-ROM turns out to as stable a medium as it is
currently believed to be, the images encoded on them today will
continue to be available, with absolutely no degradation, a
hundred years from now. I have seen hundred-year-old photographs
that are in excellent condition, but they can not be as clear and
sharp and detailed as they were when first produced (though the
degradation may be so slight as to be imperceptible). Many more
have obviously faded with time. Such a fate will not befall images
stored digitally. And, if those digital images are propagated
widely enough, copies lost to fire or accident can be replaced with
exact copies from another source.

There are now cameras available that produce digital images
directly from the source--there is no film or intermediate stage
involved. To date, these digital cameras fall far short of the
resolution we expect from film, but as the technology continues to
develop we can expect them to improve, and gradually replace the
older method. Scanners are available at very reasonable cost that
will do a fairly decent job of copying photographs. They provide an
inexpensive means of distributing copies of images to others in
your family who have computers, or if you have an inkjet printer,
or laser printer, you can provide black and white print-outs of
images to family members. These fall far short of the quality of
photographically produced copies, but are much better than
photocopies. Much less expensive to produce than photographs, they
can be widely distributed and may serve to jog some memories, or
create enough interest in your project to enlist some help.